Response to chapters 1-3

The
advancement of technology has greatly affected how popular culture is portrayed
today.At the same time, it has given
children different ways of getting exposed to it.Popular culture, as we see it today or
neglect to see it is an influence on children and how they become exposed to
the reality, they live in.In my
opinion, some schools prefer their students to live in a fantasy world, where
everything is perfect and we all live in harmony following the status quo.

That is a lie, and something
students will never understand unless they are exposed to it.

We
have forgotten how the mind of children works, and only teach the children as
if on a drill.As Cameron White and
Trenia Walker (2008) stated, schools has turned into prisons, only teaching
students to be "appropriately acting citizens" (p 3).School no longer holds the interest of the
students, and this only means that we are doing something wrong.Even as adults, we seek pleasure from the
popular culture.Children, on the other
hand, not only seek but also are a targeted audience for popular culture.It is important that we stay updated with our
students.This only means that we must
try to teach our students what they are required to know while keeping their
interests.

What
may seem interesting for me while in primary school may be, and most likely is,
different from students in the primary schools today.Then, technology was not as advanced as what
it is today.Now, we have cable and
internet where children have more choices to pick.Of course, this just makes it even harder to
keep their attention in the schools.What we need to understand is that, these children spend only a fraction
of their time in school.Whatever they
do out of school we cannot control.

This
controversy of bringing popular culture into the classroom is
understandable.Popular culture is good
and does portray different aspects and point of views.However, censoring is also good.As teachers, we must know what to use and
what not to use.Just bringing something
in for pleasure only may not be the best way of doing it.Bringing something in for pleasure and
knowledge is the best way.

I
think that popular culture is the best way to portray America's society as it
is, and whom it involves.This topic of
multiculturalism is very important for all students to understand and be
sensitive about.I think it is good for
teachers to try to integrate the differences, but it may not be the most
useful.Because everybody has bias
whether they know or not.I think that
it is best to have that bias portrayed in the music or films being shown, than
by a teacher.

My
few experiences as a student listening to my culture being exposed to my
classmates were not very fun.I remember
coming out of it very disappointed and embarrassed.I felt my teacher was not up-to-date with the
information.Actually, she was not very
correct.I felt a lot of bias coming
from her.It was more as if she was
making fun of my culture as compared to hers (which the majority of my
classmates shared her ethnicity).I
believe this did not successfully help my fellow classmates to understand me at
all.

I
do not remember my teachers bringing in popular culture into my
classrooms.Once in sixth grade, my
teacher secretly showed my class the movie Hook,
which I remember our principle denied her request.It was fun movie day, but I did not learn
much from it.I believe we were not
learning anything that associated with the movie.My point is if we allow ourselves to integrate
popular culture into our classrooms, there is assurance that our students will
learn better.They will be able to see
the world from multiple perspectives.

1 Comment

The metaphor of schools being prisons really bothered me. I guess that since I've spent so much of my life in the school setting, it's hard to digest. I wonder if kids really feel like they're in a prison. Maybe only some of them do.
The story about your teacher saddens me, yet I know that teachers like that exist. We have been talking a great deal about race at our school, and sometimes it seems like there are so many inequities built into the system. Maybe using pop culture could begin to change the system.

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This page contains a single entry by Mai Yer published on September 13, 2009 9:59 AM.